1 – Putting the app before the horse ??

The Nigeria Police Force in partnership with indigenous and foreign technology firms, has rolled out an app named Hawk Eye, aimed at curbing insecurity across the country.

Hawk Eye is a mobile app that will allow users to report crimes anonymously to the police by video, voice or text.

Developed by Lagos-based tech firm, Web Assets Nigeria Limited, in partnership with U.S. based tech firms BBGN&K, and tech giant Microsoft, in collaboration with the Nigeria Police, the solution provides key technologies such as facial recognition and key performance indicators.

Well, congratulations to Web Assets ?, but considering all we know about the size of the Nigerian internet market, it is difficult to see how this makes sense. Most people, living in most places do not have internet connected smartphones and most of the ones who do are not likely to use your app (or any app that is not Facebook, Instagram, or WhatsApp).

Rolling out a user-facing app with “facial recognition” (not sure if this is for the citizen reporting a crime or if they are supposed to ask the suspect for a selfie ?) might make sense AFTER you have fixed the rot in the police force, built a database of citizens, set up a network of connected vehicles, staffed them with competent officials versed in actual investigative work, and brought response time down to a few minutes. But I guess you can’t award crony contracts off of most of those things. ?

+ And since when did KPIs become “key technologies” nitoriolorun?

+ Related: No app can make up for a lack of political will – Nanjira. Link.

Your ad here. Email ads@bigcabal.com, or just hit reply

2 – XL Africa

These ?? are the 20 startups who made it into the World Bank’s XL Africa accelerator. At the end of the four-month programme, they will present their businesses to investors at the African Angel Investor Summit to raise $250k – $1.5m in Series A capital.

+ Nigeria is the most represented country with 9 startups in the cohort, followed by Kenya with 5, South Africa, 3, Tanzania, 2, and Senegal, 1. (Has anyone else noticed how its the same startups who get into most of these accelerator programmes? No? Okay.)

Your ad here. Email ads@bigcabal.com, or just hit reply.

What else is interesting?

+ Data from space hints that Nigeria’s economy is improving. Link. (Spoiler: someone measured light intensity, used it as a proxy for electricity usage and concluded that it must mean the economy is getting better. I have no further comments at this time)

+ Filed under headlines I did not expect to read today: “Nigerian invents computer that can smell explosives” Link.

+ Applications for Airbus BizLab’s Africa4Future initiative are open, with a September 6th deadline. If your startup is in aerospace, apply and get an opportunity to pitch your product, here.

+ Union Bank is launching an acceleration programme with CcHub. The carrot seems to be strategic partnerships with, and support from the bank. Link.

+ Are you developing open source VR/AR technologies that can help improve children’s lives? The UNICEF Innovation fund is offering $50,000- $90,000 in equity free funding. Apply by September 17, 11:59pm EDT.

Upcoming events

Abuja: The Abuja Masterclass on the 31st of August will be ‘an introduction to Angel investing’ conducted by Tomi Davies. Check it out if you’d love to deepen your understanding of early-stage investing. Link

Lagos: At this month’s Usable meetup on the 31st, the discussion will be about the steps to take to recruit the right users for your research. Link

Lagos: MEST Masterclass, on September 1st: A Masterclass session for startup entrepreneurs looking to learn what angel Investors look for in startups. Link

London: Africans in AI is a meetup for Africans living in London who are interested or involved in Artificial Intelligence. It will hold tomorrow, September 1, and you can find out more/register here: Link.

Lagos: Paystack is organizing a Y-Combinator Lagos Meetup on September 23. Meet YC founders and gain insight into the process. Link.

Here’s everything interesting in African technology today. Not subscribed? Click here to get this goodness in your mailbox every day at 7am (GMT + 1). Hello. 1. Greenwish Partners, a renewable energy company run by a former Morgan Stanley exec, wants to invest $800m on solar-powered telecom towers across Africa. For some context, according to Bloomberg, there are over 240,000 […]

Digital Nomads: Dipo, a cyber security analyst who left Nigeria to the UK to study shares his experience.
He also tells us what it feels like to be one of 36 people to receive a government scholarship for which over 6,000 people applied

Fuelled by the global health crisis that has seen businesses closed for months across the continent, job placement site Jobberman says there was a 70% decrease in job listings and 17% decrease in jobseeker sign ups in the beginning of March, just weeks short of the start of lockdowns in Nigeria and most of the […]

On 3rd June, 2020 In a Twitter thread a woman outlined a shocking alleged sexual harassment incident by Kendall Ananyi, founder and CEO of Tizeti; a broadband startup based out of Lagos, Nigeria. At the time of the alleged incident, Kendall was a coach at the Meltwater Entrepreneurial School of Technology (MEST) and this incident […]

More From Digest

MTN Nigeria has shut down its stores and service centres across Nigeria as reactions from xenophobic attacks in South Africa continue to grow. In a press release posted on Wednesday, the Nigerian subsidiary confirmed that its facilities and stakeholders have been subject of attacks since Tuesday. It announced that all its stores and service centres […]

Africa-focused e-commerce company, Jumia has released its financial report for the second quarter (Q2) of 2019. This is the company’s second financial report since it became a publicly-traded company, and there are a lot of sides to the earnings report. Here’s what we know.